5 things you
need to know
about
Employment Contract Reviews
- Many employers look to have their employment contracts reviewed by a lawyer. Often this is before employees take the job, and at other times when employees are leaving a job, and employers want advice on the non-compete or non-solicitation clauses.
- If you want to have your employment contracts reviewed, the main clauses your employment lawyer will look at are your employee's obligations, restrictions which may apply to their outside activities, the non-compete clause, the termination provisions, and the pay and bonus clauses.
- If an employee leaves your business, employers often seek a review of the non-compete and non-solicitation clauses in the employment agreement. The law around non-compete clauses is complex. How a non-compete clause is interpreted and whether it will be enforced depends on the employee’s role and the facts of each case. For example, it may be reasonable to prevent the CEO of a company from directly competing with their previous employer due to the nature of the information the CEO had access to, while the same could not be said of a casually employed cleaner working for the same business. In general, the courts are more likely to uphold a shorter and less restrictive non-compete period.
- Employers may also have their employment contracts reviewed as part of the process of ensuring that termination or redundancy was conducted fairly. What is fair will also depend on the circumstances of the case.
- Employment law is also influenced by case law. A solicitor or barrister with experience in employment law should be up to date on recent employment case law to provide you with specialist employment law advice.
